


Steve Harrington’s Fake Smiles (as noticed by Robin Buckley)

by whoopswheresmyusername



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Bisexual Steve Harrington, Coming Out, Freeform? But also not really?, Gen, Internalized Biphobia, Period Typical Homophobia, Steve Has PTSD, Steve’s rant is inspired by Andrews rant in the breakfast club, i mean they do swear a lot in this but whatever, i tagged Dustin but he’s literally mentioned once sorry, i wrote this while I was traveling so it’s kind of gibberish but it’s fine, if I forget a tag whatever sue me, one use of a homophobic slur but I swear I don’t condone it, robin is a hella good listener, scoops duo, steve and robin are besties and can never be separated, steve and robin swear some but it’s not worse than what the little stranger things kids say, steves dad is a jerk, this is my first time writing and posting a fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-10
Updated: 2019-08-10
Packaged: 2020-08-14 02:27:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20184730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whoopswheresmyusername/pseuds/whoopswheresmyusername
Summary: Steve Harrington smiles a lot. Robin can tell when he’s fake smiling and when he’s not.





	Steve Harrington’s Fake Smiles (as noticed by Robin Buckley)

Steve Harrington was cool. That much was obvious to robin the second she lay eyes on him. He wore what was in fashion, he had cool friends, he was a star player on the basketball team, and generally gave off a vibe that he was better than everyone else.  
Taking the job at Starcourt in Scoops Ahoy was an easy way to make some quick money, but when she realized that Steve was also hired to work with her, she was filled with overwhelming dread. It was bad enough that she had to socialize with the number of pretty girls, but Steve “the hair” Harrington working with her was the cherry on top. She has to get along with this idiot all summer.  
Hooray.  
When she walked into Scoops on her first shift, she wasn’t surprised to see she was the only one there. So she opened up without him.  
She had served at least five customers by the time Steve strutted his ass through the front doors.  
“You’re late.” She says, not even looking up from the cash register.  
“Well good morning, sunshine,” he says defensively, running his fingers through his quaffed hair. He grins, and it’s a convincing grin, but she can tell he’s not really happy. Weird. Why shouldn’t he be? He’s got everything.  
“Sling some ice cream. You owe me.” She walks into the back room to sit down for the first time that morning.  
“Owe you what, exactly?” His confusion is muffled by the sliding glass panes separating the ice cream from robin.  
“You’re opening up tomorrow and serving the first five customers.”  
Steve scoffs but doesn’t argue. Robins ears are blessed with silence for the first time in an hour and a half.  
Then Steve has to go and ruin it.  
“Goddammit!” He slides open the frosted glass and leans on the counter. “This stupid sailor hat is messing up my look!”  
Robin moves one headphone off and clicks the pause button on her Walkman.  
“Your... look.” She says slowly, looking up at him from under her eyebrows.  
“Yes! My look! It’s ruining my hair!” He whines.  
“What happened to make you think so?” She can’t help but grin a bit.  
“So some really hot girls walk in and they don’t swoon or giggle or anything!”  
“Tragic.” She props her legs up on the table, crossing them at the ankle.  
“I hate this outfit.” Steve grumbles, sliding the glass closed.  
“So do that ladies, Popeye!” She calls after him.

Later that week, she takes the whiteboard and starts keeping a tally of Steve’s successes and failures in the flirting department. By the end of the month, there is a substantial number of tallies in the “You suck” column, while the “You rock” column remains pristinely white and unmarked.  
“Hey rob, you don’t have to keep doing that.” Steve tells her one day. He’s normally very light hearted about it, so the heaviness in his voice surprises her.  
“What’s wrong, Harrington?”  
Steve pauses and then takes off his hat. “Nothing. I’m fine.”  
“Steve.”  
He’s avoiding eye contact.  
“Why do you need to know?”  
“So I can make you feel better so you’re not grumpy all day. I don’t want to have to sling scoops for you, especially when you get the tip jar today.”  
Steve gives a small smile that vanishes quickly. While it’s there, it’s very obviously fake.  
“It’s my dad, okay?” He gives in, coming around to the back room.  
“What about him?”  
“He- He was just being a douche. Nothing else. I’m fine.”  
“That can’t be it.”  
“It’s fine, robin. Just let it go.”  
“No.”  
“Why not?”  
“You’re still grumpy.” She has never seen him in a funk like this. Sure, he got grumpy every time a girl wouldn’t give him the courtesy of a smile, but he normally snapped out of it.  
“Want to hear the whole thing? Fine. My dad chewed me out again for not getting into college. That’s what it started as, at least. Then he started going off on why I was a disappointment to the Harrington name and how all of my problems are just in my head, and how nothing that happened last year was bad enough to be this messed up-“ he stops.  
“Shit, Steve.” Robin breathes.  
“Forget the last part.”  
“What happened last year? I’ve heard some stuff about the Byers kid but it’s all rumors.”  
“I said forget it.”  
“And with Barb-“  
“Shut up, robin.”  
She’s taken aback by the harshness in his voice.  
He shakes his head and shoves his hat back on. The silence that follows is awkward and doesn’t really end until they both go home that night.

“Hey Harrington?” She asks one day, at least a week after the awkward silence.  
“Mm?” He says, washing some scoopers.  
“You know you can talk to me, right?” She tries extending an olive branch.  
Steve smiles a little. It’s fake again, but that doesn’t mean there’s no warmth behind it. “Does this make us friends?”  
“Yeah- I mean... yeah, I guess it does.”  
An incessant dinging comes from the front. Robin sighs and opens the windows.  
“Popeye, your kids are back for more.”  
Standing at the counter is a group of kids that she’s come to recognize as Mike, Will, Lucas, Max and El. She’s not sure what el is short for, but she doesn’t really want to ask.  
“Again? That’s the third time this week!” He grumbles, opening the staff door to let the kids into the back hallway. “If anyone catches you I swear I’m gonna-“  
“You’re gonna kill us, we know.” Says Max, grinning sarcastically.  
“Jesus Christ.” Steve puts a hand on his hip. “I can’t wait until Dustin gets back. Damn, he’s missed a lot.”  
“Awwww,” robin mocks. “Does little stevey-wevey have emotions for little 14 year olds? That’s a first.”  
“Shut up.” He smiles a little. This one is slightly less fake. She doesn’t know why, but she counts it as a success.  
“How do you know so many kids?” She asks.  
“It’s- a long story.”  
“Does it involve last year?”  
Steve flinches a little.  
“I’ll take that as a yes.”  
She’s come to realize that she can chat with him about almost everything except what happened last year. They’ve had slow days where they rant about their parents and how shitty life is and movies. Any time she brings up Barbra Holland’s death or anything that happened after, he actively avoids the subject.  
Until Dustin comes back from camp. Until they start decoding that Russian message. Until they plan a heist and get stuck in a Russian base under the mall.  
When they all see that giant machine with all the scientists, Robin notices that both Steve and Dustin are terrified. To be fair, she is too, but this is traumatic levels of fear.  
She approaches him while they’re walking down one of the endless halls. “Steve, are you okay?”  
“Yeah. I’m fine.”  
“That machine... it- you were scared.”  
“You weren’t?”  
“I was, I just- does that have something to do with what happened last year?”  
He falters.  
“Steve?”  
He takes a deep breath. “Yeah.”  
“Shit.” She mutters. “I’m sorry.”  
“Now isn’t the time.”  
“Steve-“  
“I’ll explain when we get out of here.”

Things get a little out of hand when the Russians drug them and beat the shit out of Steve. When Dustin and Erica save their asses and lug them into the movie theater it’s completely slipped their minds to have a heart to heart.  
Robin leans out to see if Erica is paying attention.  
“Steve. Steve. Steeeeevveee. Steve.” She pokes him in the arm.  
“What do you want?” He says, shoving the popcorn he plucked from a garbage can into his mouth.  
“I’m thiiiirrrsssttyyyy”  
“Then go to the water fountain, moron.” He gestures with a hand filled with popcorn.  
“Noooo! please come with me?”  
He groans and throws some popcorn at robin. She giggles and drags herself and Steve out of their seats to get water.  
Skip to about fifteen minutes later, they’re giggling hysterically on the bathroom floor. The only thing interrupting their giggling is very odd muppet-like singing.  
Steve is genuinely happy, his face caked in dried blood and laughing so hard he nearly faints. Even though robin is still hazy from whatever the hell those Russians put in her, she knows that this is the first time she’s seen him truly happy. 

“What the fuck just happened?” Robin asks Steve, who is sitting on the ground next to her.  
“I- ...”  
“Long story?”  
“Yeah, something like that.”  
“Well I have a long time.”  
Steve smiles a little and wraps the shock blanket around him tighter.  
“You can come over to my house tomorrow, if you like.” Steve offers.  
“Steve, we talked about this-“  
“Robin.” He laughs a bit. “I remember that. I meant I can explain tomorrow if you want to come over.”  
“Oh.”  
“Do you have a pen?”  
Robin fumbles around in the pocket of her gigantic blue shorts and pulls out a little ballpoint.  
“That works.” Steve grabs it and scribbles a number on the palm of her hand. “Might as well give you my number. I’ll call you later, okay?”  
“Okay, Popeye.”  
Steve stands up shakily and walks over to where his parents are standing, turning back to wave goodbye to her.  
She smiles and waves back.

Robin wakes up to the phone ringing. She groans and picks up the receiver by her bed.  
“Who is this and why are you calling at-“ she checks the clock. “One thirty in the morning?”  
Steve answers. “Robin, where do you live?”  
She gives her address before she thinks.  
“Thanks. I’m heading over now.”  
“Steve, what? Why?”  
“Doesn’t matter. See you in five minutes.” The click of the receiver and the beep of the dead line signals the end of the conversation. Obviously.  
Robin clicks on the light by her bed.  
“What is he doing?”  
Then she realizes.  
“How does he know my phone number?”  
She contemplates these questions until the sound of something hitting her window shocks her back to reality. There’s another clunk as another rock hits her window.  
She unlocks it and pokes her head out.  
“Robin, please let me in.” Steve says shakily from her lawn.  
“Harrington, would you mind explaining to me what the hell is going on?”  
“Robin,” He pleads. “Please.”  
She stops. “Okay, just give me a minute.”  
Once she lets Steve in and gets him a big glass of water, she reclines in the chair by her desk while Steve lays on the carpeting. He’s breathing heavily, his good eye closed. (His bad one was already swollen shut)  
“Steve, what happened?”  
“My dad.”  
“Oh, shit.”  
He opens his eye and looks up at her with tears in his eyes. “Do you hate me?”  
“No, Steve, what are you talking about?”  
“I hate my dad.” Steve chokes out.  
Robin pauses.  
“You have to get good grades, Steve. you have to be good at every sport, Steve, otherwise you’re a pussy. Steve, get another girlfriend. Steve we don’t tolerate losers in this household! STEVE HARRINGTON YOU WILL NOT CRY. ONLY PUSSIES AND GAYS CRY. WIN, WIN, WIN.” His voice goes from a hoarse whisper to nearly choking shouts. When he stops talking, he shifts onto his side in the fetal position facing away from robin.  
“Oh my god, Steve. I- I’m sorry.”  
She knows she can’t really do anything to help him.  
“And there’s always the whole thing about how when I wake up screaming, it’s a problem I can fix by getting a girlfriend. When I have a panic attack, it can all be fixed by going for a run and getting water and denying it ever happened.”  
Steve sits up.  
“You want to hear what happened last year?”  
“Steve, is now the best time to-“  
“It’s my fault barb died. She died at my party. Will didn’t get lost in the woods, he got lost in another dimension with these horrible monsters-“  
“Like the one at the mall?”  
“That guy was the head honcho. Demagorgons, and demadogs. That’s what the kids call them, at least. I fought them with a bat covered in nails. It’s nightmare stuff, Robin.” His voice is shaky. “Will got possessed by the leader, the mind flayer. Everyone that was inside that mall has nearly died several times.”  
Steve keeps explaining his exploits and how it keeps him up at night. He closes with explaining that after his dad chewed him out for getting beat up again and hanging out with those kids again, he tried to sleep but the monster wouldn’t let him.  
“I see it every time I close my eyes.” He chokes out.  
“Well, I guess that makes two of us.” Robin jokes sadly.  
Nobody laughs. It wasn’t a particularly funny joke.  
“Robin?”  
“Yeah, Steve?”  
“Is- is it...”  
“Are you okay?”  
“You’re gay.”  
“Yeah I am, what about it?” She asks, confused at how blunt he’s being.  
“Well, I-“  
“Steve...”  
“Is it... possible for a person...” he takes a shaky breath.  
“Are you okay? Do you need water or something?”  
“No, no I’m fine, but... is it possible for a person to like- for a person to be not quite gay and not quite straight? Like... to like boys and girls?” He says quietly.  
“Steve-“  
“It’s okay if it’s not because it’s not like I’m asking out of personal experience or anything-“  
“Steve.”  
“I mean I support you and you’re gay but-“  
“STEVE!”  
“... yeah?”  
“Yes. It’s a thing.”  
“It... is?”  
“Yeah. It’s called bisexuality.”  
“Bisexuality?”  
“Yes. Why are you asking?”  
“Robin?”  
“Steve?”  
“I- I think I’m that.”  
“I think I’m not surprised, but thank you for telling me.”  
“That’s it?”  
“Yeah, I guess. Feels nice, doesn’t it?”  
Steve pauses. “Yeah.”  
“What makes you tell me now?”  
“I was thinking about when we were in the bathroom and you told me, and it got me thinking about the time I had a crush on a boy in second grade, and when I told someone I got beat up.”  
“Yeah, sounds about right.”  
“Shut up. Anyway, I got called a fag the rest of the year. My dad about killed me. I always thought I was broken because I liked boys and girls. I dunno.” Steve curls in on himself.  
“Dude, Steve, listen. You arent broken. I can take you to the queer club I go to sometimes.”  
“The... queer club?”  
“Yeah, it’s where a bunch of LGBT people can meet eachother and talk and shit.”  
“That would be nice, I guess.”  
“Yeah?”  
“Yeah.” Steve smiles. Robin notices that his eyes light up. He’s happy. And he might not stay happy all the time, but he’s genuinely happy now. That’s what counts, she thinks to herself.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time posting whoop whoop  
Uhhh sorry for this train wreck but I was tired and thought this was a brilliant idea  
This is kind of freeform but with a little bit of a theme I guess? I have no idea if I’ll post again but this was fun to write


End file.
